
Gass_ 

Book__ 







A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



%%%®ti%&\ Hnn diets J0if HLfltHUgJifflinnih 



JANUARY 13, 1836, 



' 



HENRY A. BULLARD, 



PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 



PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST, 




A. 

°f WA C 



"KTc to -©x leans: 

PRINTED BY BENJAMIN LEVY, 

t'ORNlR OF PHARTRES A N D B I E N V I T, I, E RTREKTS 



M DfCC XXXVI 















\ 



^ 



New Orleans, Jan. 18, 1836. 

Dear Sir: 

The undersigned have been deputed a Committee 
by the Historical Society of Louisiana, to express to 
you the high gratification which the Society has 
derived, from the very able and instructive discourse 
you delivered before it on the 13th instant ; and also, 
to communicate their unanimous desire, that you would 
furnish the Committee with a copy for publication. 
For the accomplishment of all the objects embraced 
within the scope of its labors, the Society deems it a 
matter of high importance, that its plans and means 
and promised usefulness, should be clearly developed 
and widely diffused. Through the publication and 
general circulation of the discourse, it confidently antici- 
pates the attainment of this chief good. The luminous 
synopsis it presents of the objects aimed at, and the 
means of attainment ; the felicitous selection with which 
it has grouped together, or tastefully interwoven amidst 
dry statistics, some of the most curious and thrilling 
incidents of our early history, added to the attractive 
grace of the composition, will at once commend the 
performance to the admiration of the scholar ; and the 
Society itself, to the generous support of that enlight- 
ened public, who are to reap the reward of all its toils 
and achievements. The Committee feel assured, that 
nothing can be added to this last inducement, to en- 
hance the obligation to fulfil the wishes of the Soci<)\ ; 



and tendering to you their sincere respects and their 
cordial felicitations on the cheering and kindly auspices 
under which our labors commence. 
We remain, Dear Sir, 
Your ob't serv'ts, 

S. BARTON, 

E. H. BARTON, 

JNO. WINTHROP, 

J. BURTON HARRISON, 

P. A. ROST. 



New Orleans, Jan. 30, 1836. 
Gentlemen : 

Your favor of the 18th instant, as a Committee of 
the Historical Society, conveying to me the desire of 
the Society, that I would furnish you with a copy of 
my discourse for the press, certainly merited a more 
prompt reply. But I was compelled to employ the 
few leisure moments which other avocations leave me, 
in preparing the manuscript for the press; and I have 
now the honor to furnish you with a copy, which is 
entirely at the disposition of the Society. 

Accept my best thanks for the flattering terms 
in which you have been pleased to speak of that 
performance, which was hastily prepared, and by no 
means does justice to the subject. If, however, it 
should tend in any degree to awaken a spirit of enquiry, 
in an interesting field of research, it will have more 
ili;ni accomplished my purpose. 
I have the honor to be. 
Gentlemen, 

Your ob't serv't, 

H. A. BULLARD. 

To Messrs. S. Barton, 

E. H. Barton, 

J. Winthrop, StS^nuiuUfi^ 

J. B. Harrison, 

I\ A Etosi 



A DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

igtdtikal IN c tie t a ®i %®mt$i&n$t 9 

JANUARY 13, 1836, 

BY 

HENRY A. BULLARD, 

PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 



Gentlemen : 

At our preliminary meeting you were pleased to request 
me to read to you at this time, a paper upon the expediency and 
utility of establishing an Historical Society in this state. The 
same causes which kept me from the discharge of public duties 
during the last summer and autumn, prevented my making any 
adequate preparation for this occasion, and the few remarks 
which I have to offer, are intended to evince my zeal in the 
cause which has called us together, and my ready obedience to 
your call, rather than as at all worthy of the subject or the occasion. 

To minds exclusively devoted to the pursuit of wealth, and 
bending all their energies to that single purpose, it would seem a 
startling proposition, that there could be any thing either of inter- 
est or utility in inquiries into the history of the first discovery 
and settlement of Louisiana by Europeans ; in rescuing from 
threatened oblivion the records of its first colonization ; in efforts 
to bring to light and to perpetuate by means of the press, all such 
documents as would form the elements of an authentic history of 
our multiform population, and the successive changes in the forms 
of colonial government, and the progress of its settlement under 
the different sovereigns who have successively ruled this country. 



But the time has arrived, I trust, when pursuits of a character 
purely literary, will have their value among - us ; when those who 
engage in researches, having only truth for their object, although 
barren of immediate results, will be regarded as contributing in 
some measure to the public good, by adding something to the 
stock of our national literature. As contemporary history is 
liable to be discoloured by interest, by prejudice and passion, 
each generation as it passes away, is under obligations to its 
successors to furnish them those authentic materials for which 
alone its true character can be known to posterity, and to perpe- 
tuate the public documents and correspondence which accom- 
pany and explain every public transaction. But we, who are 
enjoying the fruits of the labors, and fatigues and sufferings of 
our predecessors, owe it also to their memory, to snatch from 
oblivion the record of their actions, and no longer to leave their 
fame to rest on the loose, and garbled, and exaggerated narra- 
tions of contemporary writers, or catch-penny authors of what 
the world calls history. History, Gentlemen, as it is generally 
written, is at best but an approximation to truth, I had almost 
said, an approximation to probability. It is true the exaggerated 
and marvellous statements of travellers, or discoverers and set- 
tlers, as to physical features and productions of a new country, 
and the characters of its aboriginal inhabitants, may easily be 
corrected by subsequent observation and experience. The width 
of the Mississippi, for example, below this capital, had dwindled 
from a league to less than a mile ; St. Louis is no longer in lati- 
tude 45 North, and 276 longitude ; quarries of emeralds, silver 
mines and gold dust, are nowhere found in Louisiana. But the 
narratives of events and transactions, by real or pretended eye- 
witnesses, or by the authors of histories and memoirs, can only 
be tested by reference to authentic records, or by their own 
intrinsic evidence of their falsify or truth. This latter test is not 
always to be relied on, for the true is not always probable. Tra- 
dition, ornamented and coloured by fiction, has always proved 
from the earliest records of our race, a large ingredient in the 
composition of history. TIcnce the origin and early annals, not 



only of the people and states of antiquity, but of many of com- 
paratively modern date, are involved in mystery and fable. But 
it would be a matter of just reproach, if a people, whose 
first lodgment on the continent was made long since the dis- 
covery of the art of printing ; whose entire annals embrace a 
period of the highest civilization ; if such a people, I say, should 
suffer to perish the muniments of its early history, and the mists 
of fiction to settle on its origin and progress. 

In many of the states of this Union, of British origin, histor- 
ical societies have been organized, whose labors have been 
eminently successful. A mass of materials has been accumu- 
lated and preserved by means of the press, which excludes the 
possibility of future misrepresentations in regard to the true 
history of the country, and the times to which they relate. It is 
singularly interesting to look at the conduct and characters of 
our ancestors through such a medium. We see them as they 
were ; we hear them speak the language of their own age ; we 
are brought in immediate contact with the founders of our rising 
empire ; we trace the gradual progress of their settlement, from 
the sea-board to the interior ; we witness their privations, their 
sufferings, their unflinching firmness and constancy of purpose. 
At a more recent period, we are introduced into the primitive 
assemblies of the people ; we observe the gradual development 
of those opinions and principles, which at this day lay at the 
foundation of our free popular institutions ; the first discussed, 
when the threatened encroachments of power upon right were 
met and resisted, and the blood of the Barons of Runymeade 
cried out for Magna Charta, in the wilderness of a new world. 

Gentlemen, the field of research which we propose to explore, 
is vast and in a great measure new. It is proposed to extend our 
inquiries into the history of all that country formerly possessed 
by France and Spain, under the name of Louisiane ; to endea- 
vor to bring to light and to perpetuate by means of the press, all 
authentic papers relating thereto; to collect interesting tradi- 
tions, private histories and correspondences, and pictures of man- 
ners ; to investigate the progress of our jurisprudence ; the state 

2 



10 

of" religion, and the condition of the Indian tribes in that whole 
region. It is obvious that many of the original documents and 
records, relating to the settlement and colonization of that exten- 
sive region, must exist in the public archives at Paris, Madrid, 
and Seville, as well as the Havana ; some in the archives of the 
former government in this city, at St. Louis and Natchez ; others 
again at notaries' offices, here ; in the parochial records of the 
different posts in the interior, and much interesting matter in 
possession of the families of some of the earlier settlers of the 
country. It is becoming more and more difficult every day, to 
bring together from sources so various and so widely dispersed, 
such memorials as may yet exist. It is time, therefore, to begin 
the work in earnest and methodically. 

Before I proceed, Gentlemen, to make a few remarks on the 
several heads into which the programme of our proposed re- 
searches is naturally divided, let us pause and take a momentary 
survey of the population of the country as it exists, whose origin 
and first establishment it will become us to investigate more 
minutely in the progress of our labors. Like the rich soil upon 
our great rivers, the population may be said to be alluvial ; com- 
posed of distinctly colored strata, not yet perfectly amalgamated ; 
left by successive waves of emigration. Here we trace the gay, 
light-hearted, brave chivalry of France; the more impassioned and 
devoted Spaniard ; the untiring industry and perseverance of the 
German, and the bluff sturdiness of the British race. Here were 
thrown the wreck of Acadie, and the descendants of those un- 
happy fugitives still exist in various parts of this state. Little 
colonies from Spain, or the Spanish islands on the coast of Africa, 
were scattered in different parts of the country. Such were New 
Iberia in Attakapas, Valenzuela in Lafourche, Terre aux Breufs 
and Galvezton. They still retain to a certain extent, their lan- 
guage, manners and pursuits. There are, in the Western Dis- 
trict, some families of Gipsey origin, who still retain the peculiar 
complexion and wildness of eye, that characterises that singular 
race. The traces of the Canadian hunter and boatman, are not 
vet entirely effaced. The Germans, I believe, have totally lost 



11 

the language of their fatherland. The country of the German 
coast is, perhaps, the only existing memorial of the celebrated 
John Law, the author of the most stupendous scheme of banking, 
and stockjobbing, and fraud, that was ever practised on the cre- 
dulity of modern times. Among the earliest concessions of land 
in the province, was one in favor of Law, situated on the Ar- 
kansas, and prior to the settlement of New-Orleans ; he had sent 
over a small colony of Germans lo take possession and improve 
it ; but on the downfall of the grantee, his colonists broke up the 
establishment, and returned to this city, where they obtained 
each for himself, a small grant of land on the Mississippi, at a 
place which has ever since been called the German coast. The 
little colonies of Spaniards at New Iberia and Terre aux Boeuf, 
never had any written concessions, they were put in possession 
by the public surveyor, and it was not until long since the change 
of government, that their descendants obtained an authentic 
recognition of their title from the United States. But time does 
not permit me to pursue this subject any farther; these few hints 
are intended merely to direct your attention to it, as one of 
curious interest. 

1 proceed, Gentlemen, to submit a few remarks on some of 
the several heads of our proposed plan. 1st, The general history 
of the province from its first discovery to the present day. 2d, The 
progress of our jurisprudence and state of religion, and 3d, The 
condition of the Indian tribes. It is, by no means, m}^ purpose 
to attempt to give you a full view of the present state of our 
knowledge on these topics, much less to collate or criticise the 
various histories and memoirs which have appeared, even if I 
were capable of the task. But let us see in what particulars our 
knowledge is clearly defective, and whether it be probable that 
by proper diligence the deficiency may be supplied, and errors or 
misrepresentations corrected. 

The successive changes of government form, naturally, the 
epochs of our history. The first extends from the discovery of 
the mouth of the Mississippi by La Salle in 1681, from the inte- 
rior, by way of the Lakes, until the grant to Crozat in 1712. 



12 

2nd, Under the monopoly of Crozat, until 1717. 3d, Under the 
administration of the Western Company, until the surrender of 
their grant, 1732. 4th, Under the direct authority of the crown 
of France, until the final delivery of the province to Spain, 17G9, 
in pursuance of the treaty of Paris. 5th, Under the government 
of Spain, until the treaty of cession in 1803 ; and lastly, as an 
integral part of the United States, whether as a territory or a 
state. 

I. I think it cannot be controverted, that Robert Cavelier 
de la Salle first discovered the mouth of the Mississippi on the 
7th of April, 1681. Accompanied by the Chevalier de Tonti, 
and a few followers, he descended from the mouth of the Illinois 
to the Gulf of Mexico, passing through numerous tribes of 
Indians, not in hostile array, but his most effectual arms, the 
Calumet of peace. De la Salle was, without doubt, a man of 
great energy and enterprise, ardent and brave, sagacious and 
prudent, and of conciliatory manners. He appears to have been, 
at the same time, feared, respected, and even beloved by the 
natives. I should not have considered it necessary to mention 
this fact of the first discovery, as one well settled, if attempts 
had not been made to create some doubts about it, if not to 
deprive him of that honor, and to confer it upon Father Louis 
Hennepin, a missionary of the order of St. Francis. In the 
first, volume of "The Condensed Geography and History of the 
Western States, or the Mississippi Valley," published a few years 
ago at Cincinnati, under the particular head of " history," not 
a word is said of de la Salle having explored the course of the 
river as far as the Gulf, and of his having taken formal posses- 
sion of the country, in the name of the King of France. On 
the contrary, it is asserted, that in the spring of the previous 
year Hennepin, who had been instructed, in the absence of de la 
Salle, to explore the sources of the river, finding it easier to 
descend than to ascend, had proceeded down and reached the 
Balize in sixteen days, "if his word can be taken for it," says 
the author, from the time of his departure from the mouth of 
(he Illinois. In the next place, the author represents that de la 



13 

Salle, in 1683, after laying - the foundations of Cahokia and 
Kaskaskia, left M. de Tonti in command of those establishments, 
returned to Canada, and thence made all haste to France, to 
solicit the co-operation of the French Ministry in his views. In 
addition to the utter improbability of this whole story, it is com- 
pletely refuted by the testimony of the Reverend Father himself. 
His first publication after his return to France, and the first edi- 
tion of it, is now in my possession. It was published on the 5th 
of January, 1683, the author being- then in Paris, and was dedi- 
cated to the King of France. The work is entitled " Descrip- 
tion de la Louisiane nouvellement decouverte au sud-oiAest de la 
Nouvelle Fiance." He gives a minute account of his voyage 
from the mouth of the Illinois, to a considerable distance above 
the Falls of St. Anthony ; of his captivity, during eight months, 
among the Indians of the Upper Mississippi ; and finally, of his 
return to some of the French posts in Canada about Whitsun- 
tide (May), 1681. The "Privilege du Roi," for the publication 
of this first work of Hennepin, was granted on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1682. Not only is the author silent as to any voyage 
by himself down the river as far as the Gulf of Mexico, or 
of his having' descended below the mouth of Illinois, but the 
concluding paragraph shows conclusively, that he at that time 
set up no such pretensions. He says, in conclusion, " They sent 
me word, this year (1682), from New France, that M. de la 
Salle, finding that I had made peace with the tribes of the north 
and the north-west, situated more than five hundred leagues 
above, on the river Colbert (Mississippi), who were at war with 
the Illinois and the nations of the south, this brave captain, 
governor of Fort Frontenac, who, by his zeal and courage, 
throws new lustre on the names of the Caveliers, his ancestors, 
descended last year with his followers, and our Franciscans, as 
far as the'mouth of the great river Colbert, and to the sea, and 
that he traversed unknown nations, some of whom are civilized. 
It is believed he is about to return to France, in order to give the 
court a more ample knowledge of the whole of Louisiana, which 
we may call the delight and terrestrial paradise of America. 



14 

The king might forte there an empire, which, in a short time, 
will become flourishing in spite of the opposition of any foreign 
power." 

In another part of I he same work, the good Father says, 
"We had some intention to descend as far as the mouth of the 
river Colbert, which probably empties into the Gulf of Mexico, 
rather than into the Vermilion Sea ; but those natives who had 
arrested us, did not allow us time to navigate the river both 
above and below." Here is a, formal disclaimer of any discovery 
made by Hennepin, and an announcement that the discovery 
had been made by another ; and yet the author of the Condensed 
History and Geography of the Western States, represents Hen- 
nepin, I know not on what authority, as having reached the 
Gulf of Mexico on the 25th of March, 1680, a period when, 
according to his own account of himself, he was struggling in a 
frail canoe, against the ice and the currents above the mouth of 
Missouri. One is tempted to repeat the reflection of Voltaire, 
"e'est ainsi que l'on ecrit Phistoire." 

Father Hennepin did not certainly much overrate the great 
natural fertility and resources of Louisiana. But it is not a little 
remarkable, slow and lingering were the first attempts to colonize 
it, although made under the immediate auspices of the crown of 
France. The most superficial reader of history cannot have failed 
to remark the different spirit which characterises the colonization 
of this continent by Spain, France and England. The Spaniard 
came for conquest and for gold ; regarding the aborigines as ene- 
mies to God ; no alternative was left them but the cross, or the 
edge of the sword : even submission did not save them from the 
most, abject and oppressive servitude. France, on the contrary, 
cultivated the good will of the natives, and was in general, emi- 
nently successful in gaining their friendship, so far at least as 
relates to Louisiana; commerce with them, in the natural produc- 
tions of the country, seems to have been their primary object. 
Trade, in fact, was the basis of her colonial policy ; trade, too, 
not open to all her subjects, but in the hands of monopolists by 
grants from the crown, and maintained in the enjoyment of it by 



15 

naval and military power. The first establishment of the French 
were rather trading houses than colonies. The English colonies 
on the contrary, were for the most part the offspring of individual 
enterprise. The basis of their system was agriculture combined 
with commerce ; they brought with them their household gods; 
they sought a permanent abiding place, for themselves and 
their posterity ; many of them, far from enjoying the patronage 
and protection of the crown, fled from persecution and intolerance. 
They came, and as soon as private interest began to operate 
freely, on a soil comparatively sterile, and in a rigorous climate, 
the country was converted into a garden. The English colonists 
brought with them the germ of popular self-government ; at very 
early periods, they made laws for themselves, sometimes in 
assemblies purely democratic ; generally through their represent- 
atives, laws suited to their conditions and their wants. In the 
colonies of France and Spain, on the contrary, except in matters 
of mere local police, all laws and regulations came over the 
ocean. Trade in its most minute ramifications, even domestic 
trade, was fettered with precise tariffs of prices and profits, in- 
stead of being left open to free competition. According to a 
regulation established by the Western Company, 1721, the price 
of a slave sold to the colonists by the proprietary company, was 
fixed at six hundred livres, on a credit of one, two and three 
years ; tobacco, in leaf or twist, was bought at their warehouses 
at the rate of twenty-five livres per hundred ; rice, at twelve 
livres the quintal ; peltries and furs had their fixed prices. 
French goods were sold at Biloxi, Mobile and New-Orleans, at 
five per cent, advance on the invoice price in France ; at Natchez 
and Yazoo at seventy per cent, profit ; at Natchitoches and Ar- 
kansas, at eighty per cent, and at one hundred per cent, in Illinois. 
The price of wine was one hundred and twenty livres the 
barrique. 

There sprung out of this spirit of petty traffic, a class of 
characters altogether unique and unknown elsewhere, called 
"coureurs des bois" half pedlers and half hunters, with a little 
finish of the broker. It was through their agency that goods 



16 

imported from France, were pushed into the most remote settle- 
ments of the country and to the Indian villages, and exchanged 
for the productions of the country. When I first came to this 
country, I knew some old decrepid men of that class; crippled, 
frost-bitten, and yet at an extreme old age retaining a singular 
predilection for that wandering, half savage life, and still dressed 
in skins, with leggins and moccasins. 

Appended to the regulations of the Western Company, to 
which I have alluded, was a strong recommendation, which I 
mention, to show how singularly it has been neglected up to the 
present day. The company earnestly recommend to the colon- 
ists, to cultivate silk, to plant out mulberry trees, and offers as 
high a price for raw silk, as it now bears in the best market. 
They were sensible that perhaps no country on earth was better 
suited to that branch of industry ; that the mulberry is indige- 
nous in every part of the province and grows with great luxu- 
riance, and is among the first trees to put forth its foliage in the 
spring. This recommendation seems to have been totally ne- 
glected, until more lucrative staples were introduced, which now 
engross the whole industry and capital of the country. But the 
time may yet come, when the raising of silk, a beautiful branch 
of industry, which in fact would not interfere with more heavy 
crops, will become extensive, as it could not fail to become 
lucrative in this country. 

The first colonists made two or three successive selections 
of a capital for their new colony, that were injudicious in the 
extreme ; Dauphine island and the two Biloxis, all sandy bar- 
rens. More than twenty years after the establishment, they 
depended almost exclusively on France, Vera Cruz and the 
Havana, for a supply of provisions, and in the vicinity of the rich- 
est soil in the world, the people were threatened with famine. 
It was not until those places were finally abandoned, after the 
surrender of his charter by Crozat, and a change of system under 
the administration of the Western Company, that the great 
resources of the country began to develop themselves; numerous 
grants of land were then made, and agriculture began to take a 



17 

start. On this part, of our early history, little need be said at this 
time ; but I should be wanting - to myself, as well as the occasion, 
if I failed to make honorable mention of the production of our best 
historian, whose labors have thrown important light upon every 
part of our history, without omitting man)'' minute and interest- 
ing details on this part in particular. Historical literature is 
deeply indebted to my learned and distinguished friend and col- 
league, Judge Martin. His work, while it evinces great labor 
and research, proves at the same time how scattered and fugitive 
are the materials employed by him in its composition, and how 
difficult, if not impossible, it would be for a reader to satisfy his 
curiosity by resorting to the original sources of information from 
which the author drew. He appears to have had access to manu- 
scripts which have never been published, but which it is nol, 
perhaps, too late to arrest from oblivion. 

It must be confessed, that at the breaking out. of the war of 
1756, France possessed on this continent the basis of a splendid 
empire. Her possessions, embraced on the South the mouth of 
the Mississippi, and on the North, that of the St. Lawrence, 
stretching through the heart of the continent, and covering the 
great central valley of the Mississippi and the Northern Lakes. 
Louisiana, though by far the most important and interesting 
portion of her domain, had made but little progress, and was 
regarded as an appendage to Canada. That war, it is well 
known, was disastrous to the arms of France, and at the pacifi- 
cation in 1762, she was stripped of all her possessions in North 
America, except that part of the ancient province of Louisiana 
West of the Mississippi, together with the island of Orleans. 
Simultaneously with the treaty of peace, France ceded to Spain 
the remnant of her possessions on this continent. With this 
treaty commenced a new era for Louisiana. Its ancient forms 
of administration, and its entire system of laws were changed. 
This transition was attended by afflicting events to the ancient 
population of the province, attached as they were to the land of 
their origin. Such was the delay attending the delivery of the 
province to Spain, that the people began to entertain a hope, that 

3 



18 

the transfer itself was a mere simulation, for the purpose of secur- 
ing 1 Louisiana to the crown of France, against the hazard of future 
wars. It was not until 1766, that Don Antonio de Ulloa was 
sent over to receive possession, in pursuance of previous instruc- 
tions given by the king of France to D'Abbadie. There hangs 
over the conduct of Don Antonio, an extraordinary mystery ; al- 
though he remained two years in the province at the head of a 
military force, he appears never to have taken formal possession 
of the country, and was finally compelled to withdraw, on his 
refusal to furnish the council his powers and instructions from 
the king - of Spain. I am not aware that his report to his govern- 
ment has ever been made public. We are, however, fully war- 
ranted in believing-, that such a report was made, and that it 
formed the motive or the pretext, for the sanguinary orders sub- 
sequently given to his successor, and led to the fatal catastrophe 
which ensued. If such a document exists, as we have every 
reason to suppose, a copy might be procured from Spain, and 
would throw great light on an obscure and interesting crisis in 
our annals. The bloody tragedy which followed on the arrival 
of Don Alexandra O'Reilly the next year, the total abolition of 
the council, and the introduction of the laws of Spain, as over a 
conquered people, are well known. Until recently, however, 
the extent of O'Reilly's powers was a matter of conjecture ; and 
although the courts have- uniformly considered the whole body 
of the Spanish law as in force from the date of his proclamation 
and the French jurisprudence as abrogated, yet they were com- 
pelled in a great measure, to judge of the extent of his authority 
by his official acts. Within a couple of years, documents have 
come to light, through the agency of our late Minister at Madrid, 
which go to prove, not only his original powers, but the approba- 
tion of the court of Spain of all his proceedings. Among other 
documents thus procured, is a copy of a royal order of the 28th 
of January, 1771, in which the king declares that he had in 
1765 appointed Don Antonio de Ulloa, to proceed to the province 
of Louisiana and to take possession as governor, making, how- 
ever, no innovation in its system of government, which was to 



19 

be entirely independent of the laws and usages observed in his 
American dominions, but considering it as a distinct colony, having 
even no commerce with his said dominions, and to remain under 
the control of its own administration, council and other tribunals. 
But he goes on to say, the inhabitants having rebelled in Oct. 176S, 
he had commissioned Don Alexandro O'Reilly, to proceed thither 
and take formal possession, chastise the ringleaders, and to annex 
that province to the rest of his dominions. That his orders had 
been obeyed, the council abolished, and a cabildo established in 
its place, and the Spanish laws adopted. He proceeds to ratify 
and confirm all that had been done, and directs that Louisiana 
shall be united, as to its spiritual concerns, to the Bishopric of the 
Havana, and governed conformably to the laws of the Indies. 
It was made a dependency of the Captain-generalship and royal 
Hacienda of the island of Cuba, and as relates to the administra- 
tion of justice, a special tribunal was created, consisting of the 
Captain-general as president, the auditors of war and marine, 
the attorney of the Hacienda, and the notary of the government. 
To this tribunal appeals were to go, and from it to the council at 
Seville, without resorting to the audiencia of St. Domingo. 

O'Reilly appears to have made a detailed report of his pro- 
ceedings, consisting of six distinct statements. These state- 
ments have never, probably, been made public in extenso, but 
another document, procured at the same time at Madrid, contains 
a minute analysis of them. I allude to a report made to the 
king by the Council and Chamber of the Indies, to whom the 
whole matters had been referred. It is filled with the most 
extravagant encomiums upon O'Reilly. The profoundness of 
his comprehension, the sublimity of his spirit, the correctness of 
his judgment, the admirable energy displayed in his provisions 
for the civil, economical and political government, his delicate 
knowledge and acute discernment of the laws of both kingdoms, 
as well as of the practical and forensic styles of the courts, — all 
these are set forth in the most pompous and sonorous phraseology 
of choice Castilian. By way of finish to this picture, and in the 
spirit of the most sublime bathos, the council adds, "that by the 
admirable arrangement of pay and distribution which he has 



20 

proposed in the military and political classes, the treasury has 
gained (how much do you suppose, gentlemen?) one hundred 
and thirty dollars ! which advantage is clue to the comprehen- 
sive and indefatigable genius of the commissioner!" Miserable, 
cold-blooded, heartless calculators ! at that very moment O'Reilly 
was the object of the just execration of the whole population of 
Louisiana. They had seen some of their best citizens, the elite 
of the country, immured in the dungeons of the Moro Castle, 
others shot down without mercy, without necessity, without a 
crime, unless it was a crime to love the land of their birth, the 
land in whose bosom repose the bones of their ancestors, — all 
entrapped at a moment of profound security and submission, 
under circumstances of the most infamous treachery and dupli- 
city, and mocked with the forms of a trial, under a statute 
written in a foreign language, and never promulgated in the pro- 
vince. Does no one yet survive, in this whole generation — no 
one yet lingering on the stage — who was an eye witness of those 
transactions, from whom we could hope to obtain a vivid picture 
of the grief, consternation and despair which smote the heart of 
of the country, while the place d'armes of New-Orleans, was 
reeking with its best blood, that we might hold it up to the most 
remote posterity, as a comment on the specious bombast of the 
Council of Seville 1 ? 

The commercial regulations proposed by O'Reilly, and 
which form the subject of his first statement, were undoubtedly 
liberal and calculated to advance the prosperity of the province. 
They contemplated a wide departure from the rigorous mouopoly 
with which the commerce of the Spanish colonies had been 
shackled : a free trade between Havana and Spain, the produc- 
tions of Louisiana to pay no duties when imported into that port, 
and no duty to be levied on exports from Havana to Louisiana ; 
the admission of all Louisiana vessels into all the ports of Spain 
as well as the Havana, provided that none but Spanish or Loui- 
siana bottoms should be employed in that trade. This system 
met the entire approbation of the council, except that t lie exemp- 
tion from the payment of duties should be considered only as 
temporary. 



21 

The second statement relates to the propriety of subjecting' 
Louisiana to the same system of laws which prevailed in the 
other Spanish colonies, of carrying on legal proceedings in 
Spanish, the establishment of the New Appellate Tribunal, of 
which I have already spoken, with a direct appeal from it to the 
council. These arrangements were sanctioned by the council 
with this proviso: that the Intendents of Hacienda and Marine 
should have a voice and vote in the proposed tribunal. 

The third and fourth statements relate to the organization 
of the Cabildo, and the appointment of Don Luis de Unzaga as 
civil and military governor of the province. 

The fifth details the new ecclesiastical and economical 
arrangements. 

The sixth and last statement of O'Reilly, informs the king 
that he had appointed a lieutenant governor for the district of 
Illinois and Natchitoches, encloses copies of his instructions, and 
proposes that the governor alone should have the power to grant 
lands, and that concessions should be made according to certain 
regulations which he had adopted on the advice of well informed 
persons. This is the well known ordinance of 1770, of which I 
may have occasion to speak hereafter. 

It cannot be denied, that in many respects the new govern- 
ment was liberal and even paternal. Lands were distributed 
gratuitously to meet the wants of an increasing population, and 
direct taxation was unknown in the province. If the ratio of 
increase of the population be an index of its prosperity, Loui- 
siana was certainly flourishing and prosperous. In sixteen years 
from the year 1769, the population was more than doubled by 
the ordinary means, independently of small colonies from Malaga 
and the Canary Islands. In 1711 it amounted only to four hun- 
dred, including twenty slaves. During thirty-four years of 
Spanish domination in this country, its resources were conside- 
rably developed, and Louisiana has been regarded, perhaps with 
justice, as the favored pet of Spain. 

Gentlemen, it does not enter into my plan to go into any 
historical details relating to the different periods of our history ; 



22 

but ray object is simply to call your attention to them, as worthy 
of minute investigation in the progress of our researches. Much 
interesting matter might yet be brought to light, illustrative of 
the characters of many distinguished persons who figured, and 
some of whom suffered, in the crisis I have already alluded to. 
What has become of the memorials and correspondence of Mihlet, 
who was despatched by the Louisianians to France, to entreat 
the king not to compel his loyal subjects to pass under the yoke 
of Spain 1 Who, that has read our earlier history, does not 
desire a more intimate acquaintance with the spirit of the times, 
and with the enterprising men who laid the foundation of the 
colony, and to investigate more minutely its gradual development. 
II. I proceed to make a few remarks upon the second head 
of our proposed inquiries, to wit : the progress of our jurispru- 
dence. The most important part of the history of a state, is that 
of its legislation. Upon that depends its prosperity and the 
character and pursuits of the people. It is not a little remarka- 
ble, that although successively an appendage of the monarchies 
of France and Spain, Louisiana never knew any thing like a right 
of primogeniture and a privileged class. No part of feudality 
was ever known here, neither inequality in the distribution of 
estates, nor fiefs, nor signories, nor mayorazgos. The grants of 
land were all allodial, and under no other condition than that of 
cultivation and improvement within limited periods ; in fact, 
essentially in fee simple. The colonists brought with them, as 
the basis of their municipal law, the custom of Paris. By the 
charter in favor of Crosat, the laws, edicts and ordinances of the 
realm and the custom of Paris, are expressly extended to Louisi- 
ana. To this custom, which we all know was a body of written 
law, maybe traced the origin of many of the peculiar institutions 
which still distinguish our jurisprudence from that of all the 
other States of the Union. I allude especially to the matrimonial 
community of gains, the rigid restrictions on the disinheritance of 
children, and the reserved portion in favor of forced heirs,the severe 
restraints upon widows and widowers, in relation to donations in 
favor of second husbands or wives, by the Edit des Secondes Noces; 



23 

the inalienability of dower, and the strict guards by which the 
paraphernal rights of the wife are secured against the extrava- 
gance of spendthrift husbands. The community of acquests 
and gains between husband and wife, is altogether a creature of 
customary law, unknown to the jurisprudence of Rome, and even 
in those provinces of France formerly governed by the written 
law. It is said to be of German or Saxon origin, and during the 
regime of the two first races of the kings of France, the share of 
the wife was one-third, instead of one-half of the property ac- 
quired during marriage, as regulated by the existing code. The 
introduction of the Spanish law in 1769, produced but slight 
changes on most of these points. The general rules of descent, 
as regulated by the law of Spain, did not vary materially from 
those of the custom of Paris ; a perfect equality among heirs, 
was the essential characteristic of both codes. The points of dis- 
crepancy will form a curious subject of investigation to any one 
desirous of pursuing the inquiry. The existing code of this State 
has maintained to a certain extent those peculiarities, and they 
have become deeply rooted in the public mind. 

O'Reilly, when he introduced by proclamation the whole body 
of the Spanish law, published a Manual of Practice. How far 
the practice was changed in substance, by that regulation, from 
what existed before, I am not prepared to say. It is to be pre- 
sumed, from the character of those who had been previously en- 
gaged in the administration of the laws, that the practice was 
very simple, and perhaps, rude, and the records of judicial 
proceedings at these early periods, are extremely meagre. The 
order of the Commandant, after hearing the stories of both par- 
ties, was the decree to which all submitted. 

Until the cession of the country to the United States, the writ 
of habeas corpus and the trial by Jury, were of course unknown 
here. Of the first, it is sufficient to say, that without it there 
can be no genuine personal security. Whatever we may think 
of the trial by jury, as a test of right or law, as a tribunal to 
decide upon the disputed rights of the citizens in civil cases, there 
is one point of view in which it may be regarded as above all 



24 

price, namely, a* the means by which the citizens become insen- 
sibly instructed in the great leading principles of the laws, and 
the foundation and extent of their rights. It is the best school 
of the citizen. The people assemble at stated periods to attend 
the' sessions of the courts; the discussions are public ; the neigh- 
bors of the parties are called on to act as jurors ; they hear the 
laws commented on by counsel; they receive the instructions of 
the court, and retire to deliberate on their verdict. Each juror 
feels the responsibility under which he acts. Thus, the citizens 
in rotation, are called on to perform highly important functions 
in the administration of the laws, and after serving a few T terms, 
cannot fail to become pretty well acquainted with the great lead- 
ing principles of the laws of their country, and more vigilant in 
maintaining their own rights. My own opinion is, that the trial 
by jury in the interior of this state, has done more to enlighten 
the people, than all the means of education which have been 
provided by the munificence of the legislature. Many men who 
can neither read nor write, are yet capable of deciding as jury- 
men, a question of disputed right between two of their fellow 
citizens, with admirable discrimination. I think I can perceive 
in this respect, a singular improvement in the general intelli- 
gence of the people since I came to reside here, twenty-two 
years ago, especially among that class of our population to whom 
the trial by jury and the publicity of judicial proceedings, were 
novelties. A friend of mine used to relate an anecdote, which 
illustrates this position. Two honest Creoles were disputing 
about a point of law, said one of them, " How, do you think I 
don't know, Sir 1 I am a justice of the peace !" " And I," said 
the other, " I ought to know something about it, I have been 
twice foreman of the grand jury." 

If I were to dwell longer upon the subject of our jurisprudence, 
this address would swell into a dissertation. Permit me to 
recommend this subject to your attention, and particularly an 
inquiry into the practical operation of the laws above referred to, 
which regulate the great relations of social and domestic life. 
Whether an equal participation of the wife in the property 



25 

acquired dining marriage ; a right growing originally out of the 
presumed collaboration of the parties in a rude primitive state of 
society, ought still to exist in the present age of refinement and 
extravagance. Whether such a system be not productive of more 
frauds and injustice to creditors, and disruption of families and 
litigation, than of public good and domestic tranquility, are 
questions more proper for discussion in the halls of legislation, 
than here ; they belong rather to the legistor than the historian. 

III. I should hardly be pardoned, if I dwelt long on the 
next subject embraced in our plan, the state of religion. I will 
confine myself to a single remark. Fortunately Louisiana was 
ceded to Spain after the Inquisition had, even in that country of 
bigotry, been disarmed of most of its terrors, and although in this 
country the Catholic religion was the only one openly tolerated, 
yet an attempt to introduce that most infamous of all human 
institutions, was indignantly put down by the people and the 
local authorities. 

IV. The condition of the Indian tribes comes next. The 
Indians ! the Indians ! whether subjects of history or heroes of 
romance, or mixed up in the miserable ephemeral dramatic trash 
of the day, always exaggerated, disfigured, carricatured. They 
have been represented by some as brave, high-minded and capa- 
ble of sustaining extraordinary privations ; sometimes as cold, 
stern, taciturn ; sometimes as gay, lively, frolicksome, full of 
badinage, and excessively given to gambling ; sometimes as 
cruel, and even man-eaters, delighting in the infliction of the 
most horrible tortures. Some will tell you that they have no 
religious notions, no conception of a great first cause ; others, 
that they have a simple natural religion ; or as the poet has it : 

" His untutored mind, 
Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind ; 
His soul, proud science never taught to stray, 
Far as the solar walk or milky way. 
Yet simple Nature to his hope has given, 
Behind the cloud topped hill, an humbler heaven 



26 

Some safer world, in depth of woods embraced. 

Some happier Island in the watery waste. 

To be content, his natural desire, 

He asks no angel's wings, no seraph's fire, 

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 

His faithful dog shall bear him company." 

Some of the earlier historians represent the Natchez as 
worshippers of the sun, or worshippers of fire ; as having- a tem- 
ple dedicated to the sun, keeping up a perpetual, a vestal fire. 
They conclude, of course, that those Indians must have been 
allied at least to the Peruvians or Mexicans, if not descended from 
the fire worshippers of the East. The truth probably was, that 
in some miserable cabin or wigwam, a few chunks were kept 
burning, as is the case in every Indian encampment, and indeed, 
in every well regulated kitchen. The fact is, that neither the 
pen of Cooper, nor the more eloquent and fascinating style of 
Chateaubriand, can inspire the slightest interest for their Indian 
heroes and heroines, in the mind of a man who has been much 
among the aborigines, and knows something of their real charac- 
ter and habits. With respect to those nations which yet exist, 
we are able to see for ourselves, and correct the false impressions 
which earlier writers may have produced. It is melancholy to 
look over the list of tribes, which were once scattered over the 
surface of lower Louisiana at early periods of the colony. How 
many of them are totally extinct ! How many dwindled dow r n to 
a mere shadow, and their feeble remnant confounded with some 
neighboring tribe ! The Attakapas, the Carancuas, the Opelousas, 
the Adayes, the Natchitoches, the Natchez, where are they, and 
what monuments have they left us, by which any trace of their 
origin or their history may be known 1 Of the Natchitoches, 
only a single individual exists, and he has been adopted by the 
Cados. Who knows any thing of the language of those nations 1 
Their language, certainly among the most curious of the rem- 
nants of erratic tribes, and by which an acute philology might 
perhaps trace some affinities with other existing people, is known 



27 

only to a few; and they are not of that class from whom the republic 
of letters might expect some account' of it. The powerful tribe 
of the Natchez is totally extinct ; its last miserable remnant took 
refuge among the Chickasaws. There remain a few degenerate 
(if such beings can degenerate) descendants of the Tunicas, 
Chitemachas, Pacagoulas, Apalaches and Beloxis. 

Neither the French nor the Spanish governments recognised, 
in the Indians, any primitive title to the land over which they 
hunted, nor even to the spot on which their permanent dwellings 
were fixed. They were often grantees of lands for very limited 
extents, not exceeding a league square, covering their village. 
They were sometimes permitted to sell out their ancient posses- 
sions, and had a new locality assigned them. Many titles of 
that kind exist at the present time, and have been subjects of 
judicial decision. But the policy of extinguishing the primitive 
Indian title, as it is called, by purchase, which prevailed univer- 
sally among the English colonists, appears to have been wholly 
unknown to the French and Spaniards in Louisiana. The mas- 
sacre of the French at Natchez, which led to the extermination 
of that tribe, was provoked by the attrocious attempt, by the com- 
mandant, to destroy their village at St. Catherines, in order to 
annex the land to his own plantation. 

There are many indications here, as well as in upper 
Louisiana and Ohio, of a race of men, long since extinct, who 
had probably made considerable advances in some of the useful 
arts, and perhaps the art of defence. In Sicily Island, in the 
parish of Catahoula, there is a curious circle of mounds, regu- 
larly disposed, embracing a large area of alluvial soil, but little 
elevated above high water mark. I believe the dwelling house 
of the present proprietor, Mr. Matthews, is built upon one of 
them. There are others equally curious on Black River ; and 
near the village of Harrisonburg may yet be traced an extensive 
elevation of earth, strongly resembling breast works. The 
enemy against which these works were tin own up, was probably 
the Mississippi, whose waters once flooded the whole of that 



28 . 

region at certain stages. The study of Indian mounds has 
heretofore led to no important discovery upon which much reli- 
ance can be placed. It is worse than idle to indulge in conjec- 
tures upon the origin of these monuments. A few skulls, picked 
up here and there, may indicate, perhaps, to the professed phre- 
nologist, the former existence of a race more civilized than the 
present Indians, more capable of combination, having the organ 
of constructiveness more amply developed ; but no general con- 
clusions can be safely drawn from indications so feeble and equi- 
vocal. It would be, in my opinion, equally philosophical to 
conclude with the poet : 

" The earth lias bubbles as the ocean has, 
And these are of them." 

That there are, among the existing race of aborigines, instances 
of extraordinary capacity and power of combination, a few indi- 
viduals, infinitely superior to the common herd, is undoubted. 
What was the boasted Cadmus of antiquity, who introduced into 
Greece a few letters of Egyptian or Phenician origin, when com- 
pared with that poor, crippled Cherokee of our own day, who, by 
the unaided efforts of mind, by the simple power of induction, 
invented, perhaps, the most perfect alphabet of any existing 
language 1 

Gentlemen : in these hasty and imperfect glances over the 
wide field of our proposed inquiries, I have purposely omitted to 
touch upon the last, or rather the present, era of our history, 
commencing with the annexation of Louisiana to the Federal 
Union, by far the most brilliant and important, and marked by 
great and interesting events. In relation to Louisiana, this may 
be properly designated as the epoch of constitutional, popular 
self government and of steam, as applied to navigation. The 
documents which illustrate this part of our history are within 
our reach, and ought to be collected and preserved. Forty years 
ago, what was New-Orleans — what was Louisiana ? The mighty 
liver which sweeps by us then rolled silently through an extended 



29 

wilderness, receiving the tribute of its vassal streams from the 
base of the Rocky Mountains on one side, and the Apalachean 
chain on the other ; its broad and smooth surface, occasionally 
ruffled by the dip of an Indian's paddle, or a solitary barge, slowly 
creeping up stream to the feeble settlements in the interior. What 
are they now 1 This city has become the greatest mart of agri- 
cultural products on the face of the globe ; and yonder river tra- 
verses a double range of states, peopled by freemen, who, by the 
miracles of steam, are brought almost in contact with the great 
market for the productions of their industry. That river is literally 
covered with floating palaces, which visit its most remote branches; 
and along the extended levee fronting our pod, a dense forest of 
masts exhibits the flags of every commercial nation in the world. 
At her annexation to the Union, the destiny of Louisiana became 
fixed — admitted at once to a participation in the great renown of 
the republic, connected with it by bonds of a common interest, 
she sprung forward, as it were by a single leap, from colonial 
dependance, to the glorious prerogatives of freemen, and to the 
enjoyment of the most luxuriant prosperity. 

Gentlemen, let us endeavor to make a wise use of this 
prosperity, and do something for the cause of letters. Colleges 
are springing up under the generous patronage of the Legislature, 
which promise soon to be amply sufficient for the education of the 
rising generation. The Medical College of this city, the 
offspring of private enterprise and sustained by the devotion 
of a few medical gentlemen to the cause of science, deserves 
public encouragement, and I trust will receive it. The Lyceum 
of this city promises to unite utility with all that is agree- 
able in the public discussion of interesting topics. Let us turn 
aside, occasionally at least, from the worship of mammon, devote 
some of our leisure moments, stolen from mere sordid and 
engrossing pursuits, to the cultivation of liberal studies. Who 
does not sigh, sometimes, amidst the bustle and struggle of active 
life, to retreat upon the studies of his youth "? To fly to his early 
friends ; friends who never deceive him and never weary ; to the 



30 

society of the philosophers, poets, historians of past times, and to 
bask in the mild radiance of those great luminaries of the intellec- 
tual world ; to renew again those studies — which, if you will 
allow me to paraphrase the splendid eulogium of the great mas- 
ter of Roman eloquence — studies which form the generous aliment 
of youthful mind ; the hoped for delight of declining years ; the 
best ornament of prosperity ; in adversity our surest consolation 
and refuge ; inexhaustible source of the purest pleasure, whether 
at home or abroad, whether engaged in the bustle of the city, 
or enjoying the sober tranquility of rural life. 



